The Outlaws

First Doctor Adventures #1.1

Released: 12 April 2022

Listened: 4/19/22

This is the first of a new era of First Doctor Adventures, featuring Stephen Noonan as the Doctor, with Lauren Cornelius continuing as Dodo. It allows an opportunity to flesh out this part of the First Doctor era, and give Dodo a consistent character, which she never really had on TV. Cornelius has really mastered her choices as Dodo, sounding a lot like a modern companion with her accent, word choice, and shaky grasp of history. Stephen Noonan isn’t doing an impersonation, but he’s certainly closer to Hartnell’s performance than David Bradley is. However, he plays the Doctor as frequently high-pitched and silly-sounding, so that when he drops into his gruff, outraged tone, it’s an odd transition. Worse, they’ve kept Hartnell’s tic of stumbling over words. I wish they hadn’t done that, as it seems like a Hartnell thing, rather than a Doctor thing, and as such, it’s rather disrespectful. As for the story itself, it’s almost a pure historical, taking place in Lincoln in 1216. King John is on the throne, the French are about to invade, and Nicholaa de la Haye is Sheriff of Lincoln. Which would be fine, except that Dodo has a 1960s interpretation of John’s reign, and gets herself in trouble. There’s also a band of thieves who appear to be doing the Robin Hood thing, but without the “give to the poor” part. The thing that makes it not a pure historical is that the Monk is here, the Rufus Hound version, helping the outlaws. Although this is much later in the Monk’s personal timeline, he was expecting the First Doctor, and seems to hold a grudge against him specifically for the events of “The Time Meddler.” However, he’s still the Rufus Hound Monk, so it’s always fun to hear him become apoplectic, even if it seems like it would fit better in a more modern story. There are minor historical characters scattered about: the sheriff’s granddaughter, the head of her guards, and the bandit leader, but to be honest, their plot threads don’t really go anywhere, or at least, they aren’t much influenced by the Doctor and Dodo. Their part seems to be mostly “get back to the TARDIS” with a side of “stop the Monk.” On the whole, it feels like the story isn’t all that important, and we’re just listening to the actors do their thing.